Franz Hofer (film director)

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Franz Hofer (actually Franz Wygand Wüstenhöfer , born August 31, 1882 in Saarbrücken , † May 5, 1945 in Berlin ) was a German film director .

Life

Like many other directors, Hofer came to film through the theater . From 1910 on he wrote screenplays and in 1913 he realized his first film - The First Traces of Age - as a director for Luna Film . Hofer proved to be very flexible with the type of filmed material, he filmed detective films, dramas and comedies. The role of women in his films is remarkable. They leave a very emancipated impression in films like The Black Ball . People like the later director Ernst Lubitsch , the later well-known actor Hans Albers and Dorrit Weixler, who died early, played for Hofer . With his films German Heroes and Christmas Bells 1914 , he was one of the first to focus on the First World War . Hofer then made films for various production companies until he went into business for himself in 1920.

But he could no longer build on the successes of earlier days with his films. The failure of his own productions made it necessary for him to work again as a director for other companies from 1927 . All of the films he has made since then have not been successful with either audiences or critics. His last film was Drei Kaiserjäger from 1933. Hofer then turned back to the theater .

Although he had been a member of the NSDAP since 1932 and on April 4, 1933 he joined the NS factory cell organization of film directors of German origin, he did not receive any film commissions during the National Socialist era . Not much is known of the last years of his life. Franz Hofer died on May 5, 1945 in Berlin under unexplained circumstances.

Hofer was one of the very early German auteur filmmakers . Only 15 of his 84 films “survived” (as of 1999). It is remarkable that Hofer was obviously "forgotten" by film history. In many film dictionaries, insofar as it is mentioned at all, there is only a reference to the film Fräulein Piccolo 1915, probably only due to the fact that Ernst Lubitsch plays a role in this film. It was not until 1990 that Hofer and his films were rediscovered at the 9th International Silent Film Festival in Pordenone.

His early films show a diverse picture of German cinema in the German Empire . Before 1919, the era of German film was still overshadowed by the "classic" era from Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari .

In 1999, the city of his birth, Saarbrücken, honored him with a retrospective of the films he received as part of its 1000th anniversary.

Filmography (selection)

Franz Hofer Prize

In his honor, the Filmhaus Saarbrücken has been awarding the Franz Hofer Prize annually since 2002 for outstanding performance in German and international film. Previous winners are

literature

  • Yuri Tsivian: Stylists of the 10s. Franz Hofer and Jewgenij Bauer. In: Thomas Elsaesser , Michael Wedel (Hrsg.): Kino der Kaiserzeit. Between tradition and modernity. Edition Text + Critique, München 2002, ISBN 3-88377-695-5 , pp. 379–400.
  • Elena Dagrada: Franz Hofer. Voyeur of the imperial era. In: Thomas Elsaesser, Michael Wedel (Hrsg.): Kino der Kaiserzeit. Between tradition and modernity. Edition Text + Critique, München 2002, ISBN 3-88377-695-5 , pp. 253-264.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 258.
personal data
SURNAME Hofer, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wüstenhöfer, Franz Wygand (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film director
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarbrücken
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1945
Place of death Berlin